Friday, February 21, 2014

Arizona Biltmore cottages

Nestled in the garden courtyard of the Arizona Biltmore hotel are a number of textile block cottages. These date to the original construction of the hotel in 1929 and believe it or not, were designated for guest's children and nannies to keep them from under foot. Today they are the most desirable addresses within the resort.

The lush grounds are as perfect as a golf course and in fact hold a number of putting greens within their bounds. Each cottage is different and of varying sizes but I especially liked this low slung version above.

I overheard a guest excitedly telling some friends how the hotel had placed him in one of these cottages as the rooms were all full in order to fulfill his reservation. He had a living room, dining room, kitchen, and 2 bedrooms at his disposal (as opposed to one rather standard sized hotel room, no matter how luxurious)!

Those were some lucky nannies! Like the hotel itself the roofs of these bungalows function as terraces.

The original cantilevered copper awnings are rather spectacular.

As it is a garden in the midst of a desert water features are to be found everywhere.

This lush greenery wouldn't be out of place in Beverly Hills or Greenwich.

A number of the larger cottages are actually split into separate units, accessed at different points to remain private.

I love the textile blocks with copper detailing which are a great foil to the lush vegetation.

Don't forget to visit the cottage court if you find yourself at the Arizona Biltmore!

How do they water all that stuff? Isn't it Arizona??? Yikes. It does look amazing though. Strange that cottages for staff are so much bigger than rooms... I guess there were lots of staff traveling with lots of children! Thanks for sharing. I never knew about them before.